zenpundit.com

[ by Charles Cameron — Tankel’s take on Trump’s CT ]
.

Mostly the self-devouring snakes I track here are a little more subtle about the circular nature of their logic — the phrasing often hides the fact that man bites self, or dog chases own tail. This example, however, is just so blatant, presented in so large and darkna font, with its accompanying image just so dazzlingly colored, that I just has to bring it here.

Self-defeating, self-eating — it’s the self- part that signals trouble. Stephen Tankel is a fine researcher — his book Storming the World Stage: The Story of Lashkar-e-Taiba is recommended readng on the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

He is not a happy chap:

The emerging Trump counterterrorism strategy appears to be a dysfunctional combination of repurposed elements of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama approaches infused with some of Trump’s worst impulses

You may wish to read him.

**

Meanwhile, as an ad to accompany CNN’s Iran’s Revolutionary Guards blame Saudis for Tehran attacks, I got this:

Okay ouroboroi!

[ by Charles Cameron — media keeps wildly guessing re matters of protocol ]
.

For example..

Trump flashed me a thumbs up as he rode the gold escalator up to his first overseas adventure. pic.twitter.com/PZCmb3JCC4

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) May 20, 2017

According to guidance for Saudi provided to WH press corps: "The thumbs up gesture is considered rude." https://t.co/ybWcrBTCup

— Carol Lee (@carolelee) May 20, 2017

**

Ah, well, no one can say Trump is not sensitive:

Many people are saying it was wonderful that Mrs. Obama refused to wear a scarf in Saudi Arabia, but they were insulted.We have enuf enemies

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2015

Oops:

Melania is not wearing any veil. pic.twitter.com/25QwgPgAHC

— Eddie Du (@Edourdoo) May 20, 2017

And then again:

@akhbar Pffff. Hardly any Western female personality wears a scarf during visit to Saudi Arabia. May, Merkel, Michelle. Such a non-story. @akhbar pic.twitter.com/IghtzMCGO7

— Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) May 20, 2017

@AP Michelle Obama, Laura Bush,Hilary Clinton,Angela Merkel,Condi Rice are just a short list of powerful women who DID NOT wear a head scarf!

— Jane (@txgforever) May 20, 2017

**

Oops again:

If this were Obama, conservative headlines would read: @POTUS BOWS TO SAUDI KING!!! #maga #trumptrain #Deplorable pic.twitter.com/VpBU7Cpzr1

— Bryan W. Van Norden (@BryanVanNorden) May 20, 2017

Nope, he was bending to receive a medal around his neck.

So far so good — nobody seems to know what’s what, but ni disasters have been spotted. . The first major test is yet to come. As the Washington Post puts it, Trump campaigned against Muslims, but will preach tolerance in Saudi speech.

That will be quite a trick — but not impossible if his speech writer has been reading Will McCants.

And I suspect Melania is the President’s trump card in all this..

**

Oh, and now this, for good measure:

Not true at all that the thumbs-up is rude in the Middle East. Banning Muslims and saying "Islam hates us" is a different story. https://t.co/USB7PPN6Mh

— DavidKenner (@DavidKenner) May 20, 2017

I’m reminded of roulette..

[ by Charles Cameron — vexed questions — to bow or not to bow, hold hands, smooch, that funny handshake, dance moves, veil ]
.

WIll McCants has lined up his “friendly advice for the poor speechwriter tasked with crafting Trump’s upcoming speech on Islam” in a Politico piece titled Trump Is Giving a Speech About Islam. What Could Go Wrong? The next word, opening McCants’ sub-head? Plenty.

**

Thing is, gestures speak loud as words. Here are some of the slippery issues McCants might like to address in terms of gesture.

Bow:

There’s the question of bowing. President Obama may or may not have bowed, or leaned over to give a double-handed handshake. It’s a founding principle that America doesn’t feel deferential to monarchy, and Obama reportedly didn’t bow to Queen Elizabeth when he met her..

Here’s Bill O’Reilly:

If it were me, I wouldn’t hold his hand, I wouldn’t smooch him, I wouldn’t bow, I’d say “Hey, how ya doin’, King..”

Holding hands:

George W Bush holds hands, Chris Matthews and Jon Stweart riff..

Kiss-kiss, aka smooch:

Wolf Blitzer has this one:

Dancing with drawn sword:

Whoda thunkit? This one is truly remarkable, from my Eurocentric perspective…

That no less remarkable handshake:

Veil:

And then there’s one for the women in Trump’s entourage, Melania and Ivanka to be precise. To veil or not to veil?

Here’s Michelle Obama:

If there is humor in much of the above, it is the humor of contrast with expectation..

**

Salaam:

Without getting into the details of who greets whom, who goes first and who responds, and in what words, all of which is proper for a Muslim to discuss, I can at least say that the Quran is deeply invested in courtesy of a kind that diplomats would file under “protocol” — as we see in Sura 4 verse 86:

When a (courteous) greeting is offered you, meet it with a greeting still more courteous, or (at least) of equal courtesy. Allah takes careful account of all things.

[ by Charles Cameron — does the Syria strike compare with the Abbottabad raid? ]
.

The Mar-a-Lago situation room, in a White House photo in which “President Donald Trump receives a briefing on the Syria military strike from the National Security team, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff via secure video teleconference .. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer stated that this image has been digitally edited for security purposes”:

**

This closely echoes an earlier White House photo, from within the White House itself, in which “Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama, along with members of the national-security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House on May 1, 2011. Please note: a classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured”:

A photographic DoubleQuote for sure!

Hey, even that bit about “Sean Spicer stated that this image has been digitally edited for security purposes” rhymes conceptually with “a classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured”..

**

— and a very deliberate echo, no doubt, on the photographer’s part.

Should we be comparing seating arrangements, person by person? You’ll note at least that Trump sits at the head of the table, Obama quietly off to the side..

[ by Charles Cameron — nothing terribly new here, just catching up with the last week or so ]
.

One quick pointer.. The most significant article I’ve seen this week is Zeynep Tufekci’s Does a Protest’s Size Matter? — which contains the line:

A large protest today is less like the March on Washington in 1963 and more like Rosa Parks’s refusal to move to the back of the bus. What used to be an endpoint is now an initial spark.

I think Zeynep’s right on this one — which, FWIW, makes double images like these a whole lot less relevant:

President Trump’s inauguration crowd was smaller than Obama’s, CBS

**

Catching up on other examples of “form” in recent news..

I got this one from Zen, who’d posted it on FB.

This really is a pretty definitive illustration of the stress a president incurs in the world’s most terrifying, not to mention deeply contested, job.

**

This one goes without saying.

**

And here’s my ouroboros of the week:

As the Chinese proverb goaes:

A man needs face like a tree needs bark.

Would we do well to understand President Trump in terms of an honor-shame dynamic?